The UN secretary general António Guterres warned that the conflict in Sudan is spiralling out of control and urged an immediate halt to the fighting and an end to the violence.
Guterres singled out the capture of El Fasher in North Darfur by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) last week, after almost an 18-month siege. Footage circulating from the town reportedly shows civilians being shot, including incidents inside the maternity hospital, according to observers and local sources.
The two-year war between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the RSF has produced what the UN calls one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes of this century. Estimates indicate more than 150,000 people have been killed and over 14 million displaced from their homes.
Prosecutors at the International Criminal Court said they are gathering evidence of alleged mass killings, rape and other crimes in El Fasher, as part of wider probes into atrocities across the country.
Speaking on the sidelines of the World Summit for Social Development in Qatar, Guterres appealed to both sides to return to negotiations and end what he described as a nightmare of violence. He warned that El Fasher and surrounding areas have become an epicentre of suffering, with hundreds of thousands trapped by siege conditions and civilians dying from malnutrition, disease and attacks.
The fall of El Fasher gives the RSF control of all five state capitals in Darfur, raising fears that the region could be effectively partitioned. The Sudanese ambassador to the UK, Babikir Elamin, said there is little appetite for partition among Darfur communities, and that stopping the massacres in El Fasher must be the priority rather than an immediate ceasefire.
Washington has been promoting a peace plan negotiated by Egypt, the UAE and Saudi Arabia that would begin with a three-month humanitarian pause, move to a permanent ceasefire, and usher in a nine-month transition toward a civilian-led government. US envoys have been trying since September to persuade both sides to accept the framework.
But SAF leaders meeting in Port Sudan appear divided. Some officials, under new pressure from Egypt to agree to a truce, have resisted the US plan, insisting any ceasefire must require the RSF to withdraw from cities, including El Fasher. Others have proposed confining the RSF to camps outside urban areas, a demand whose implementation would be difficult without enforceable mechanisms.
Elamin urged the US to designate the RSF as a terrorist organisation and to impose an arms embargo on the UAE, which he accused of backing the militia. The UAE denies supplying weapons to the RSF.
Elamin accused RSF fighters of openly vowing further crimes, naming cities and ethnic groups as targets and sharing videos of killings. He said some fighters have boasted of having lost count of those they have killed. He criticised efforts to negotiate while such atrocities continue, calling on the international community to show seriousness in halting the violence and preventing what he described as acts amounting to genocide.
As world attention intensifies, diplomats hope international pressure on the belligerents and their external backers could force compromises. For now, however, the humanitarian emergency is worsening and the prospects for a rapid political settlement remain uncertain.